How to Cheer up a Thunderstorm
by Mr Ilax
Summary: When Blake promised to accompany Ruby to breakfast she made a major mistake, she forgot that even on a Saturday Ruby is an early riser. When they got to the cafeteria they saw a familiar sight performing unfamiliar actions. A plate of pancakes was sitting untouched in front of Nora. What could this mean? How do they fix it?
1. Quandry in the Cafeteria

**Author's Note: So today is Surprise Sunday! Extra little one shot for today. Well, part one of a two part one shot, so a two shot?**

 **Anyways, Lent is here, so I made a commitment to release a short story every Sunday up to Easter. Fun huh?**

 **I was supposed to work yesterday but I didn't feel like it, so I conceived this story and spent a few hours on Valentines day completing the first part. My editors were busy so I am afraid to inform you that I edited this myself, I apologize for errors.**

* * *

"Blaaaake." The overly chipper voice of the faunus' team leader called out only a few feet from her head.

Blake was left with a difficult decision, to pretend to be sleeping and hope that the bubbly brunette would leave her alone or to try to smother the younger girl with her pillow and hope the element of surprise would grant her victory. She took a third option instead by merely rolling onto her belly and covered her head with her pillow.

"Come on Blake, you promised to get breakfast with me." Ruby whined incessantly in a strained voice.

Blake knew exactly what her teammate was trying to do. The voice was a desperate attempt to coax enough sympathy that the faunus would look at the younger girls face, thus allowing her to win the battle with her trademarked 'kicked puppy look'. Normally Blake would be for fighting the good fight and try to resist, but it was too early in the morning for these shenanigans.

"When I said I would go to breakfast with you, I didn't think I would be waking up at 6 am on a Saturday to do so." The raven-haired girl managed to grunt through her pillow.

The lack of a reply gave Blake the brief idea that she might get away with her attempts to stay in bed. The two strong arms that wrapped around her waist quickly disabused her of that notion as they began to drag her out of bed.

"Ruby, stop!" Blake squeaked out frantically as she clawed at the sheets of her bed, trying to find something to cling to and resist the younger girl's antics.

It was hopeless. In the two years since Blake met Ruby, the girl had grown several inches. Now even barefoot, the brunette was taller than the faunus was in her heels. In another year, the former munchkin would probably rival her older sister in height. With the growth in height, Ruby had also put on multiple pounds of muscle. Between constantly wielding her heavy scythe on a daily basis, strength training with Yang, and improving her hand to hand combat skill with her fancy bladed gauntlets, she now easily surpassed Blake in strength.

"Ack!" Blake exclaimed as she was finally pulled off the bed, hanging limply in the arms of her team leader like a kitten hanging out of the mouth of its mother.

All of the bedding from Blake's bed was now laying on the floor as it's owner finally relinquished her grasp on them. It would need to be washed when Blake and Ruby returned from breakfast.

"Now Blakey, are you gonna change or do I need to drag you to the cafeteria in your pajamas?" Ruby said innocently enough that anyone listening would hardly be able to comprehend the actual threat behind the words.

The faunus captive turned her head to glare at the brunette when she heard another voice speak up.

"Silence, you dolts!" Weiss' shrill voice rang out. "Some of us are trying to sleep."

"Hmmph" Ruby replied with an exact imitation of the Heiress.

Well, almost exact imitation. The reaper had her cheeks puffed out in an act of defiance to her bossy teammate. Despite her inferior viewing position, Blake was able to observe the face of her captor. Despite her increased height, she still maintained most of her round childlike face, when she puffed her cheeks out she looked fifteen again. Attempting to use Ruby's current distraction to her advantage, the faunus started to struggle against the vice-like grip she was held in. No matter how hard she tried, she could not get the younger girl to relinquish her grasp. Her efforts did attract the attention of the brunette.

"So, your decision?" Ruby inquired to her captive.

"I'll be good." Blake responded in a falsely dejected tone, hanging limp again.

Ruby released her teammate and knelt down to pick up the blankets and pillows that were askew across the ground, placing them back on their former resting place. In the meantime, Blake grabbed her change of clothes. The raven-haired girl quickly shed her pajamas and changed into her outfit for the day. Her ears flicked back and forth as she tried to pick up the whispers that Ruby and Weiss were quietly exchanging as her red teammate tried to soothe the white one back to sleep.

"Ready?" Blake asked.

"Ready!" Ruby responded joyfully, earning a sharp hiss from her partner. "Oops."

Ruby and Blake quickly made their way to the cafeteria, enjoying the brisk cool air of the school campus without having to deal with the various noises and rambunctious actions of the students that were normally present. Blake took a deep breath as she relished in the quiet and cool air that encircled the feline ears on the top of her head, listening to the leaves as the fell to the ground. Sounds like this were rare to hear and should be cherished.

"You ok, Blake?" Ruby inquired quietly.

"Yeah." The faunus responded quickly while she stopped and stood in the middle of the courtyard, "Just enjoying the quiet that comes with the early morning."

Ruby stopped beside her teammate and tried to enjoy the environment. After only a few minutes the brunette started to become bored and began to fidget with the buttons on her clothing.

"Aren't you hungry?" Ruby asked while trying to remain as calm as possible, slowly starting to bounce up and down on her toes.

"Not really." Blake quipped back, eager to remain in the serene environment as long as possible.

There was no promise that the cafeteria would have as quiet and calm of an environment and Blake wanted to extend the experience as long as possible. Unfortunately her body had other ideas. The loud rumbling that was emitted from her stomach betrayed her words. The faunus desperately clutched her stomach, trying to eliminate the shocked expression on her face. The sly look on her teammate's face made it apparent that the reaper had heard her teammate's stomach's plea for food.

"Sooooo...:" Ruby trailed off.

Blake gave a hasty glare at her friend before starting to walk off in the direction of the cafeteria, trying to hide the blush of embarrassment that christened her face.

The first thing that Blake noticed when the pair of them walked into the cafeteria was that they were the only two in the room. The red and black duo made their way to the buffet table in the back. While Blake merely selected a croissant and a cup of tea, Ruby piled her plate high with various different fruits and pastries, topping her selection off with a cup of hot chocolate. After collecting their food they made their way to one of the many open tables.

They sat undisturbed for the next half hour. Their conversation topics ranged from school to friends to weekend plans. Sometimes they sat in silence for a few minutes, enjoying the peace of the empty dining hall and each other's company. Each period of quiet was always broken by the antics of the younger girl. As they finished with their food Blake felt the mood shift slightly and Ruby got a determined look on her face.

"So Blake, can I ask you a serious question?" Ruby voice was hesitant despite the appearance of her visage.

"Yeah," Blake replied evenly, trying not to show her curiousity, "what is it?"

Ruby squirmed a uncomfortably, trying to choose her words carefully.

"I-It's about W.."

The younger girl trailed off as the focus of her gaze shifted from her teammates amber eyes to the space behind her. Blake's ears twitched and rotated to listen to the new footsteps echoing through the cafeteria.

"W-What's going on with her?" Ruby sputtered out.

Blake rotated in her seat to see the newcomer shuffling towards the far side of the cafeteria where various food and beverages were laid out. With the new girl's head hanging in sorrow and arms limp at her side, it was one of the saddest sights that Blake had ever seen. Her body mimicked more of the motions of zombie from one of Blake's novels than those of a human.

Ruby and Blake watched the girl reach the table of food and lethargically place a large stack of pancakes on her plate and douse them with generous amounts of syrup. She slowly turned around and walked to the nearest table, gingerly placing the plate down and sitting in the adjacent chair. Instead of starting to eat, the girl merely stared at her food for a few minutes causing confusion in the pair of girls observing the scene.

Slowly the girl pushed the plate of untouched pancakes across the table in front of her and brought her head down onto the table with a loud thunk and a soft whimper.

"Nora!" Ruby exclaimed as she got up and zipped over to her friend's side in a flurry of rose petals.

Blake got up from her seat and ran over to join her team leader in aiding their friend. Dozens of scenarios played through the faunus' head as to what was causing the morose attitude of the normally hyperactive redhead. They last interacted with the exuberant hammer wielder just the previous day and she had been as happy and upbeat as ever. Something very severe must have happened suddenly to put the girl in her current state. Even more curious, while Nora was a notorious chipper morning person, they had never seen her out of the dormitory before 7am, and never venturing around campus by herself.

When Blake got close to the redhead head, her feline ears were able to pick up the the muffled sobs from the mopey teenager and her eyes were able to pick out the pools of liquid forming on the table underneath the other girl's head. Quickly sitting next to Nora and placing her hand on the girl's shoulder, Blake was at a loss of what to say. Comforting people was never really one of her strong suits. Lucky for her, Ruby decided to speak up instead.

"Nora." The brunette said softly, "What's wrong?"

Nora didn't give an immediate response, instead she continued to sob into the table, giving no sign that she was aware of the two girls surrounding her. Blake looked over the redhead's back at her teammate. She and Ruby exchanged worried glances, they have never seen Nora in this state before, the girl was near catatonic.

"Noooraaa." Ruby sang out trying to elicit a reaction from the girl. "What's eating ya?"

The silence from Nora was expected now, but surprisingly, the heard her voice after a few minutes.

"He's gone" She choked out, her voice still muffled by the table.

"What!?" Blake and Ruby responded together.

"Who's gone?" The faunus followed up.

"R-Ren…" Nora gasped out between sobs. "Ren's g-gone."

"Nora," Blake gasped back, hugging the girl's arm and feeling tears start to build up in her own amber eyes.

"I'm so sorry." Ruby's voice was shaky and weak.

Blake felt truly sorry for the girl. While she didn't know either Nora or Ren very well, but she was quite familiar with how it felt to lose someone close to you during her time in the White Fang. From what she was able to observe from how Ren and Nora behaved together and what she had heard from her teammates, the two of them were orphans and grew up with only the two of them looking out for each other. Blake thought about how she felt when she chose to walk away from Adam, but this had to be worse. At least he had the chance for redemption, if Ren was dead then she knew Nora's world would be crashing down on top of her.

"Ren's gone on a mission this weekend," The redhead finished, her voice growing from a sob to a wail of despair, "I won't get to see him until tomorrow night!"

Blake blinked slowly and leaned away from the girl she was just comforting. Ren was just gone for the weekend? Sure she would expect someone to be a little disappointed if one of her teammates was gone for the weekend, but to flip completely around and be filled with despair and sloth was unimaginable.

"Uh, what?" Ruby inquired to the sad teenager.

Nora sat up in her seat and wiped the tears and snot from her face with her hand and transferred it onto the side of her pink skirt. Still sniffling she turned to the red and black duo sitting next to her.

"I don't know what I am going to do without him." The hammer wielding munchkin stated, her voice a little stronger and more steady than before.

"Oh!" Ruby shouted out to Blake. "I know what we can do to cheer Nora up!"

Blake cringed slightly, her sensitive ears folding back against her head to try to muffle out some of the sound from the energetic brunette.

"One of the new students I met during Operation: First Year said something about them baking cookies today." The reaper kept babbling.

"And?" Blake asked back, trying to see the relevance of the statement.

"How do you guys feel about a cookie heist?"

* * *

 **Happy Valentine's Day to all of you.**


	2. Cookie Heist

**Author's Note: I apologize for the lateness of this update. This last week was hectic and I decided that I could either release a delayed but finished version or rush the end of the story for an on time release. I think I made the right decision.**

 **A wild OC appears in this part, briefly. This story technically follows Operation: First Year. So if you haven't read it, Ferrum is a first year that chose to apply to Beacon so he could meet RWBY, JNPR, CFVY and other teams. He is kind of a fanboy.**

 **Last bit. This is a slight AU, so Pyrrha is still alive. Because screw that.**

* * *

"Ah yeah!" The young team leader exclaimed as she saw her two future accomplices walk in and join her in the 'planning room'.

Ruby stood in the front of the lecture hall that she had convinced Professor Goodwitch to let her borrow. Standing tall in the combat outfit that Yang had altered for her when she gate-crashed the first year initiation a few weeks ago, she also had dyed her hair white again and donned the colored contacts that completed her disguise. In front of her, she had various pictograms and arrows drawn in a convoluted manner. The rest of the room was empty of both people and teaching materials.

While Blake sauntered over to one of the chairs closest to the blackboard while the zombie that had replaced Nora flopped down on the nearest desktop in a pathetic manner. The scratching and squeaking of the chalk on the board prompted the morose teenager to glance at her friend who was causing the offending noises. After taking in the sight she rubbed her eyes and inspected the younger girl more carefully.

"Hey, Blake. I thought we were meeting Ruby here." Nora mumbled without turning to face the faunus.

"That is Ruby." Blake replied back in a bored monotone that suggested this situation was an everyday occurrence.

The mopey girl rubbed her eyes again and tried to focus on the figure in front of her writing enthusiastically on the board.

"Why is she so white?"

"Eh heh." The younger girl chuckled while rubbing the back of her neck and turning to face Nora. "This is the disguise I wore when Yang coerced…" She hesitated slightly when she caught her faunus teammates eye. "When Yang and I decided to prank the first year initiation."

Blake merely buried her face in her hands. Her teammate had missed the point of the glare. Now it was only a matter of time before their redheaded companion would sink further into despair.

"Why did she get to go instead of me?"

The wailing definitely started earlier than planned.

"What happened?" Ruby inquired.

"Yang went on the mission with JNPR instead Nora." Blake started to explain, gingerly patting the crying girl shoulder without getting too close. "I found the note Yang left in the room after we got back from breakfast. Apparently JNPR got alerted to an urgent mission in the middle of the night and apparently the only response they got from Nora when they tried to wake her was 'no pancakes, no deal'. Yang overheard the commotion and poked her head out into the hallway only to get conscripted."

Ruby wrinkled her nose slightly. It was kind of Nora's fault, but what is done is done. Plus now she could have Nora take Yang's place in the plan. Originally she thought she was going to pull the plan off with just Blake after she found her sister absent in the morning. The original reason that she had asked Blake to join her for breakfast was to try to convince Blake to join in on the shenanigans. After running into a mopey Nora, Blake seemed all too willing to participate.

Ruby maintained a friendship with one of the students that she met during Operation: First Year and had agreed, maybe foolishly, to help her friend prank another team. Prank may be the wrong word though, seeing that the other team were bordering on being bullies.

"Mmrrmm…" The berserker's indignant response was almost too quiet to be heard.

"Well then!" Ruby's effervescent personality had returned with vengeance. "It's settled. As you can see on the board behind me we are taking cookies from some bratty first years. Think of team CRDL during our first year. They are making a ton of cookies for some undisclosed reason. We are going to partake in their labor."

"Ruby… was this really your idea?" Blake's glare intensified on her bubbly teammate.

"Erm… maybeYanghadapartinplanningthis."

"Of course." The faunus deadpanned burying her face in her hands. "First that stupid initiation prank and now this. Why did I have to end up on a team with that uncivilized barbarian?"

"Now you're sounding like the Ice Queen" Ruby joked back at her teammate.

"Better than looking like her."

Ruby seemed confused for a short moment until she remember the white hair dye and blue contacts she was wearing. She seemed to deflate slightly before moving on. It seemed like that knowledge of Weiss' disapproval of this plan was something the young girl had not thought of. That wasn't going to stop her now.

Glancing at the clock, she realized that they were running out of time.

"Agent Shadow and Agent Lightning. We are about to commence our cookie heist. Please observe the details of your missions!" She declared in her 'best fancy speak' that she once used to impress Winter.

Ruby briefly explained her plan to her accomplices before excusing Blake so she could gather intel on their intended target.

"Hey, This'll be fun." Ruby said with a chipper tone. "Let's get to it!"

"Mmrrmm…" Nora responded again.

The tame redhead managed to push herself to her feet and started to shuffle her way to the door. Ruby waiting expectantly, holding the door open when her scroll buzzed in her pocket. She pulled out her scroll and glanced at it, it was a message from Yang. After realizing the contents she showed it to Nora. On her scroll was a picture of Ren posing with Stormflower in his hands and looking intensely at the camera. The image elicited a small smile from the previously glum girl.

"You're right." Nora said perking up. "We can do this."

Ruby took a deep breath as she followed Ferrum, the boy she met during the latest first year initiation, into the first year dorm building.

"Thanks for letting me in!" She said cheerfully, playfully punching the boy in the shoulder. "Wait for a few minutes, let Nora in and have her standby in case thing go sour."

"Roger that Ru-..." Ferrum stopped himself. "Err… Crimson."

Ruby left the boy at the entrance way and proceeded to make her way to the dorm kitchen area. Still unsure of how exactly where she was going when she felt a tap on her shoulder.

"Ahh!" She yipped and flinched in surprise. Turning around she saw Ferrum still standing there.

 _Smooth, Ruby. You can cave in a beowolf's skull with your fist, but people still make you jump at the smallest provocation._

"Sorry," the boy apologized profusely, "I have never met Nora before, what should I expect?"

"Well, normally I would say a sugar-rushed hammer wielding maniac who would just as easily break your legs as hug you." Ruby replied tentatively. "But right now she is a little… mellow. Aren't you the resident fanboy? You should know what she is like."

"Yeah… I guess." His head drooped a little. "I'm just nervous."

"You can do it!"

With that Ruby spun on her heel, with less grace than planned, and marched down towards the kitchen.

 _Alright, Blake said that their last batch is in the oven, it's now or never._

Closing the last few feet she knocked on the door to the kitchen and waited for a response. After a few moments, shorter girl opened the door to the kitchen. Despite the fact Ruby knew they were the same age, Ruby's height and time at beacon made it seem like she was older than all the first years she ran into.

"Do you have a reason for being here? We are kind of busy." The girl snapped out in an irritated fashion.

 _Great, another Weiss. You already tamed one, you can tame another._

"Well, see I was just trying to see if anyone was using the kitchen already." Ruby started.

"We are, now leave."

Looking over the girl's shoulder she saw Blake peeking through the window from a nearby tree. It was time to captivate the other first year's attention and not get kicked out.

"Ok, but before I go I have some questions regarding kitchen." Ruby fibbed to the students.

"And?" Said the girl in front her, her attitude was starting to wear a little thin.

 _Alright, just breathe and think of what Yang would do in this situation._

"Just come over here so I don't need to yell, I promise I-" Ruby took a deep breathe before continuing with a forced wink. "I don't bite, hard."

 _Too much like Yang._

The small girl standing in the doorway looked offended, but the two boys on her team perked up a little and made their way over to the doorway. The last member of their team made her way over as well, seemingly curious about what was going on. In the gap between the two boys she say Blake make her move and jump in through the kitchen window with a moderately sized box in her hands and make her way to the cooling cookies.

"Why the nerve of an idiot like you!" The offending girl snapped. "Like I would let you bit… just ask your stupid questions."

All goodwill was now lost to Ruby for this bratty child. Behind Ruby spied Blake almost done packing up the last of the cookies, so she only had a little longer to stall them.

"Ok, jeez. I will ask teammates then." Ruby smiled back before taking a risk and making a slight pouting face to the two boys on the team. It was a gamble as she didn't know if she could pull off the same puppy dog eyes while she was wearing her colored contacts. It had its intended effect though. The irritable girl looked even more aggravated now.

"Do you think it's fair for one team to monopolize the entire dorm kitchen?"

"Well, uh, no?" One of the boys stammered out, avoiding eye contact with the reaper.

"What?" The girl exclaimed, smacking the boy in the stomach. "Of course it 's first come first serve. People can just deal with it."

Ruby reflexively sighed and gave an eye roll. She did notice that Blake was now complete with her task and making her way out of the window she came in from with a box filled to the brim with freshly baked cookies.

"Ok, second and last question. How secure do you think the windows are to the kitchen?"

"That's a moronic question," The girl spat out, "Why would you even care."

Ruby just giggled in response pointing past the quartet of first years towards the now empty counter.

"Because that is how Agent Shadow got in."

When the four students in front of her glanced to see Blake jump out the window and turn their attention back to Ruby, she realized the error of her actions. Luckily this is the part where Nora came in.

"Agent Lightning, a little backup!" Ruby called down the hall.

The reaper slowly backed down the hallway with her hands up in front of her trying to alleviate aggression as the four swindled students approached her.

"Lightning!" She called out again.

"I'm right here!" Nora's voice sang out through the hallway as Ruby heard someone charge down the hallway. "Flour! Power!"

Ruby paused for a moment to digest what she had just heard from her friend. She didn't have to wait long as she saw something go flying past her head. A satisfying splat sound accompanied the projectiles as they made contact with their target's faces.

"Right on target." Nora giggled out.

Ruby was stunned by what she just witnessed. The four offending students were standing stock still, except for their hands, which were frantically trying to remove the syrup laden pancakes from their faces. She turned to flee and saw the redhead doubled over in a fit of laughter.

"Come on." Ruby yelled as she ran past her friend, trying to grab at her hand as she went past.

"Yes sir, Agent Crimson sir." Nora exclaimed as she stood up with a mock salute and bolted after the former brunnette.

Once they were a safe distance away from the first year dorms the pair doubled back to make their way to the RWBY dorm room. Blake should already be back in the room with their ill-gotten gains. Ferrum was also supposed to meet them back there to obtain his part of the loot. As they walked back Ruby wanted to clear up one item that she was curious about.

"Hey, Nora. Where did you get the syrup and pancakes?"

The response she got was a fit of giggles. As they got to the dorm entrance she tried again; turning to her friend and giving her best puppy dog eyes.

"Nooraaa…" The reaper pouted. "Please tell me?"

"Fine." The berserker groaned. "I-"

Ruby looked at her friend to see what was causing her to pause. Seeing the shorter girl staring past her with unrivaled intensity, she turned around to see what was so interesting. The sight caused her to smile. Walking towards them was a group of four teenages; yellow, white, red, and green.

"Ren!" Nora screeched out at the top of her lungs as she sprinted full speed at her previously absent partner.

Upon reaching him, she tackled him to the ground. Instead of watching the scene, the other three members of the mission continued on to the dorm without missing a step.

"Hey, Ruby-Roo." Yang said as she closed in to her sister. "What's up? Why ya out here in your first year getup?"

"Don't you remember your stupid plan today?" Ruby turned her pouting eyes to her sister. "You bailed on me."

"Uhhh…" The brawler rubbed the back of her neck in an identical manner that her little sister does when put on the spot before offering an explanation. "Bad guys needed exploding?"

The reply only elicited a small growl from the younger sister. She turned her attention to the two swordsmen who were making their way past them into the dorm.

"Aren't you guys back early?" She asked. "I thought you weren't supposed to be back tomorrow."

Jaune and Pyrrha looked at each other before answering in sync. "I don't want to talk about it."

After the pair disappeared into the building Ruby turned and latched onto her older sister's arm, dragging her towards their room and the pile of cookies that awaited them.

"So what did happen?" Ruby asked again.

"I don't think I will be up to telling the whole story until after a shower and… cookies?"

"Yeah! We scored a ton of them!"

"Perfect." Yang stated as she increased her walking speed, now with a tasty goal to look forward to.

"So? Can I get part of the story?"

"Yeah, so…" Yang started, reaching over to ruffle her sister's hair. "After Ren found out we were leaving without Nora he was even quieter than normal. This lasted until we reached our drop point and we were informed that our mission wasn't timed, but would last until we cleared the Grimm. I think Ren… snapped. But the Grimm are dead in record time, we are back before dinner, and I am never going near Ren again if he isn't with Nora."

As the duo rounded the last staircase they looked out the window and saw the formerly depressed Nora still glomping Ren in the courtyard.

"Well," Ruby said, "At least someone could cheer up that thunderstorm."

* * *

 **I wish Nora would have told us where she got the pancakes and syrup.**


End file.
